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Position:Home>History> Was American slavery based on skin tone or the continent the people were from??Question: Was American slavery based on skin tone or the continent the people were from!?!? I heard that Europeans actually thought that they were 'helping' the African slaves be enslaving them and treating the like ****!. And if you were "black" from another continent you were treated as well as any "white" man!. Is that true!?!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I think the colour of the slaves was a contributing factor, certainly as time went on and white people more and more regarded themselves as different and superior to black people!. and they did regard them as savages and probably some of the slavers did genunienly belive they were doing the slaves a favour by transporting them to 'civilisation'!. Whether they would have plundered Africa as freely for slaves had the Africans been white I don't know!. Certainly, in the ancient world slavery was conducted freely by people against those of the same colour!. In anceint Greece the slave population was huge (50% of the population in Athens) and in the roman empire as well, and most slaves were white people, taken from foreign coutnries, (or in the case of ancient Greece from different city-states)!. And during the Viking era Viking traders happily captured white people from the countries they pillaged and either took them home as slaves for themselves, or sold them on to Arab traders!. and of course slavery was practised in Africa by the Africans themselves, and so those who sold other Africans to slave traders would not have thought of it as a bad thing to do, it was just normal commercial practise!. In America some free black people did do well for themselves during the era of slavery!. There was a large free black population in New Orleans fo rinstance, some of whom were very prosperous (some in fact were slave-owners themselves)!. I think racil prejudice has always extended to other races as well as 'black' people, so you wouldn't necessarily be particularly well treated if you were say chinese or Indian or something!. The British were certainly not lakcing in racism towards those they colonised in India etc, and the Americans were not exactly benevolent towards the native Americans, or towards the Chinese who settled in the west during the 19th century!.Www@QuestionHome@Com American slavery was part of a European commercial system!. The first Europeans to settle the Americas and Caribbean captured the natives and forced them into slavery!. They also got into the African slave trade very early!. Africa was the major source for slaves!. In the 1800s one of the hypocritical justifications for the system was that the white Americans and Europeans were introducing these people to Christianity and allowing their souls to be saved!. I don't know what other continents had "black" people!. It was not till the late 1800s that the British took over the Indian subcontinent, where the people are very dark!. The British turned them into a servile population!. White British people who went to Australia treated the dark aborigines about like stray dogs!.Www@QuestionHome@Com If they thought that, they were in great denial (it was also Americans but many European countries)!. Africans were easily rounded up for the slave trade, usually from other African tribes out for revenge!. Otherwise the Middle Passage might not have been so huge!. But Europeans and Americans (and Arabs before them) have always considered Africans as fair game!. Since they had no "culture" or "written language," they were considered sub-human--that was often the rationale, later enshrined in the US Constitution!.Www@QuestionHome@Com It was based on economic practicality!. Initially, it was American Indians who were the slaves, but they either ran off or died quickly!. Looking for a substitute source of labor, the slavers found a bustling market with good prices in west Africa!. These people were more resistant to European diseases and had no relatives to hide them if they ran off!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I do believe that!. Because almost every country has had slaves!. I really think that the Europeans was just worried about getting the stuff they wanted!. Well if they were really trying to help them out then, there own people is wrong for doing that because no one is worth money or even materialistic stuff!. AshleyWww@QuestionHome@Com It started out that Africans were just a cheap way to get free labor, being that native americans knew the land too well!. As time passed, the white man began to feel superior to the slaves, and then it turned into more of a race issue!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |